Boom Time for Billionaires by Holly Sklarwww.dissidentvoice.org
October 5, 2004

The
economy is booming again, if you're a billionaire. The new Forbes list of
the 400 richest Americans has 313 billionaires -- up 51 billionaires from
262 last year.

Donald Trump is just an
average Joe among the Forbes 400. Trump's $2.6 billion net worth puts him
right about the Forbes 400 average of $2.5 billion.

Microsoft's Bill Gates
leads the list with $48 billion, followed by Berkshire Hathaway's Warren
Buffett with $41 billion. The heirs to the founder of low-wage Wal-Mart hold
down half the Forbes 400 top ten spots, ranking numbers four through eight
on the list, with $18 billion each.

It took a minimum of $750
million to make the Forbes 400 this year. That's way up from last year's
$600 million. It won't be long before the Forbes 400 is billionaires only.

What's a billion dollars
anyway? You'd have to rake in $1 million every day for 1,000 days to reach a
billion bucks.

The $1 trillion in combined
wealth held by the 400 richest Americans is nearly as much as the combined
wealth of the more than 100 million households in the less moneyed half of
the population.

It's boom time for
billionaires, not for most Americans. The economy is growing, but wages are
falling, poverty is rising and the middle class is shrinking.

As the Census Bureau
reported recently, the number of Americans below the poverty line grew by
more than a million people in 2003, reaching 36 million. The official
poverty rate rose to 12.5 percent -- up from 12.1 percent in 2002, 11.7
percent in 2001 and 11.3 percent in 2000.

The poverty rate would be
much higher if the poverty line were adjusted to realistically reflect the
cost of minimally adequate housing, healthcare, food and other necessities
such as childcare for employed parents.

A family of four was not
considered poor unless their income was below $18,810 in 2003. A week's
worth of income at $18,810 -- $362 -- wouldn't cover the $663 box of 25
cigars on the Forbes 400 "Cost of Living Extremely Well" index.

Median household income
(half earn below the median; half earn above it) dropped to $43,318 in 2003.
That's $1,604 less than it was in 1999, when the median was $44,922,
adjusting for inflation.

The share of national
income going to the middle class last year was nearly the lowest on record,
with data back to 1967. The share going to the bottom fifth of households
was the lowest on record.

Households with incomes
above $1 million will receive tax cuts averaging $123,600 in 2004, says the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. That will cause their after-tax
income to jump by more than 6 percent -- widening the gap with those below.

The changes in federal tax
policy legislated between 2001 and 2003 "ended up transferring income share
from the bottom 99 percent to the top 1 percent," the Economic Policy
Institute reports in "The State of Working America."

As the Wall Street Journal
put it, "The Bush tax cuts, which included a reduction in the top tax rate,
as well as reductions in taxes on estates, capital gains and dividends,
helped bolster the fortunes of the fortunate."

Many Forbes 400 members are
now bolstering Bush. Forbes reports, "Members of The Forbes 400
overwhelmingly support President Bush -- judging by their pocketbooks. Of
the 240 rich listers who contributed money to either campaign directly, a
whopping 72% gave to Bush."

Forbes 400 members and
their corporations are getting tax cuts while jobs are being outsourced,
profits moved offshore, and the national debt is swelling.

Forbes 400 members are
getting tax cuts while teachers, firefighters and police get pink slips.

Forbes 400 members are
getting tax cuts while more Americans can't afford health insurance or
college.

Are those your priorities?

It's boom time for
billionaires, and more people can't pay their bills.

It's boom time for
billionaires, and more people are living in poverty while working full time.

It's boom time for
billionaires, and the middle class is shrinking.

Is this your American
Dream?

Holly Sklar is coauthor of "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies
That Work for All Of Us" (www.raisethefloor.org).
She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com.
Copyright (c) 2004 Holly Sklar